Baltisotan t1_j3dk3o8 wrote
Best/worst for high schools is a crapshoot. And if you look at rankings, the less diverse (and more white) a school is, the higher it’ll rank. It has nothing to do with the quality of the school, it’s just that wealthy children do better and therefore their high school ranks higher.
Find yourself a good community, trust that a HCPSS education will empower your kid to reach whatever their next level is, and worry more about what kind of kid you raise than how prestigious their HS is.
My wife and I were in the same position while buying a house and finally decided to quit looking at HS rankings when we noticed the “good” ones were not in communities we really wanted to be in (no mix of housing types). We love our community in KC and are sure that our daughter will get a fantastic education when she gets there. Plus, who knows what the schools will look like when it comes time (in 16 years for us). The new HS is gonna throw a wrench in everything and who knows what other changes are going to occur.
Zaidy721 t1_j3e2cez wrote
I was gonna say essentially the same. I graduated from Hammond like 10 years ago. I'm sure the demographic information is archived somewhere but our school was well diversified and it made my time there as a minority way better academically and socially than if it was any other way. During my 4 years a fight would break out once every week in the first year, once a month the year after, and then once a quarter the years after. My grades went from really great to good enough over the years. Correlation does not equal causation.
At the end of the day every student made their own success. My graduating class had 2 students accepted to MIT (one declined due to cost but still works for NASA), 1 Stanford, a dozen or more Ivy leaguers, and a ton of UMD, UMBC, and Towson grads in that order. A lot of students also ended up in HCC and transferred to other schools later to save on costs which is a great choice and one I wish I took.
My advice would be don't sweat the details. Be involved with your kid. Get to know their friends. They have the most influence on who they'll turn out to be.
Baltisotan t1_j3e4szp wrote
We’re actually zoned to Hammond and I work with another graduate, who’s a very accomplished professional. Their experience and your experience reinforce what we’re trying for - we’re gonna focus on raising a good kid and let HCPSS turn her into a smart one. Are there things we can do to help? Absolutely. But that’s independent of whatever high school she’s going to.
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